“Saving Mr. Banks” Screening Event At The Walt Disney Studio Lot Recap
It’s not often that the Walt Disney Studio opens up their gates to the public but from December 13th-19th, Disney fans were invited onto the lot in Burbank, CA to attend a special screening event of “Saving Mr. Banks” featuring Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson.
Since we published an early review last month, we won’t really touch on the details of the movie itself but rather the even at which the movie was screened.
The “Saving Mr. Banks” screening was scheduled for 7PM and the Disney Studios lot allowed guests to arrive an hour early.
After parking in the underground structure below the Frank G. Wells building, we made our way to the lobby where we were checked in and given maps of the studio as well as a wrist band for the event.
In the lobby area, there were vintage posters on the wall, 2 carousel horses from the original “Mary Poppins” film and an area to buy concessions.
The concession stand had your normal popcorn and soda options but attendees were also allowed to purchase souvenirs like a “Saving Mr. Banks” poster, Mary Poppins umbrella or Christmas ornament of Mary Poppins’ bag.
Once we were done in that area, we left the building and made our way to the Disney lot theater which was just across from the Disney Animation building. On the way to the theater, we were given the opportunity to take photos with Mary Poppins and Bert in front of a faux backdrop, and Mickey Mouse in front of the holiday decorated Animation Building.
After our awesome Disney photo ops, we headed into the gorgeous theater and were treated to a clip of the “Saving Mr. Banks” premier (which was held in the same theater) and then the movie itself. As mentioned above, I won’t go into the details of the film since we have already reviewed it but “Saving Mr. Banks” is an amazing film and is extremely heartwarming.
After the movie, we went back towards the animation building where we were allowed on 3 different levels. On the first floor, we coasted through the main hall which acted as a gallery for some amazing Disney history.
The second floor was much the same and full of vintage posters, artwork and plaques that told the story of each image.
And finally the third floor where we were able to catch a glimpse of some of the props from “Saving Mr. Banks” which included Walt’s office from the film. In an adjacent room, we got to see some of the actual items Walt had in his office back in the 1960s.
When we were done in the animation building, we started heading back towards the garage where we snapped a few photos of Walt’s limo, visited the Roy O. Disney building (an amazing site in person as the 7 Dwarfs can be seen holding up the structure) and then claiming our DVD copy of “Mary Poppins” 50th anniversary edition.
It was an amazing event that was extremely well organized and a dream come true for any Disney fan. The whole lot was decorated for the holidays and one can’t think of how lucky all of the employees are to be there on a regular basis.
One can only hope fans will get another chance like this sometime in the near future.
